Sen. Marco Rubio on Sunday began his public campaign to win over conservative support for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws, appearing on a record-setting seven network news programs.

Rubio offered a finely calibrated pitch designed to alleviate conservative concerns about reform. He pushed back against claims that a pathway to citizenship is tantamount to amnesty. He rebutted arguments that an agreement would impose dramatic new costs on taxpayers. And he defended the changes as necessary to keep the border secure.

“What we have in place today, the status quo, is horrible for America,” the Florida Republican said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The only people benefiting from the status quo in immigration today are the people trafficking human beings across the border, and the people who are hiring illegal labor for cheap purposes.”

Rubio’s appearances launch a pivotal week in the efforts of the Gang of Eight, the bipartisan group of senators working on immigration legislation. The group is expected to unveil its compromise plan on Tuesday, bringing an end to months of speculation about what the final bill will look like.

In addition to appearing on the usual five network Sunday morning programs — on CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and Fox — Rubio also appeared on Univision and Telemundo.

The high-profile push from Rubio is sure to stoke talks that he’s positioning for a run for president in 2016. He’s considered a favorite in the field of potential Republican candidates.

But he brushed off questions — neither confirming or denying — about whether being out front on immigration is an effort to bolster his national appeal, or possibly a tactic that risks upsetting primary voters.

“I haven’t even thought about it in that way and I know,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Seriously, senator?” host Candy Crowley asked.

“I have a job,” Rubio said. “My belief has always been that if I do my job and I do my job well, I’ll have options and opportunities in the future to do things, whether it’s run for reelection, run for something else or give someone else a chance at public service.”

His sales pitch was simple: This immigration plan is better than the status quo and it isn’t going to cause any of the harm that opponents are saying it will.

“They will have to come forward and pass a rigorous background check. If they’re criminals they won’t qualify,” Rubio said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“If they pass that background check, they will be given an opportunity to pay an application fee and a fine and in exchange for that, they will be given a guest worker permit allowing them to stay in the U.S., work, travel and pay taxes,” he added.

Rubio said that the 11 million undocumented immigrants are effectively receiving amnesty because no one is prosecuting them.

“Let’s bring these people out, so we can figure out who needs to leave and who we’re going to give a chance toward one day being able to apply for a green card the same way everyone else does,” Rubio said. “That’s why that’s a better approach.”

He emphasized on every show that this Gang of Eight proposal isn’t amnesty, particularly when he was pressed by multiple hosts as having been opposed to blanket amnesty in the past.

Rubio said the process the reform will create is more rigorous than the current system, which allows immigrants to return to their home country and apply for a green card after a 10-year wait.

“It’s going to be cheaper and easier to come legally,” he said on CNN.

Instead, Rubio said those who enter this program will have to wait longer and pay fines and fees.

“They will have to be in that system for over 10 years before they can apply for the existing federal system for a green card,” Rubio said, adding, it was “not a special path, the same path as everyone else.”

Workers wouldn’t qualify for any special treatment or benefits, including Obamacare, he said. Once they get a work permit, they would remain in the system before they can move to the next step.

Another point Rubio made was that the immigration reform would ensure more border security.

“While I am not in favor of a housekeeper or a landscaper crossing the border illegally, what keeps us up at night is the worry that a terrorist could come across that border one day,” Rubio said on CBS. “Or the activities that are taking place now: gangs and human traffickers.”

Rubio said it takes a three-pronged approach.

“We have not secured our border, leading not just to an immigration problem, but to a national security, sovereignty and humanitarian problem on the border,” Rubio said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “And this bill, hopefully, achieves progress on all three of those fronts.”

He said he’s going to try to win over senators by comparing it to the status quo.

“I just hope I can convince people that leaving things the way they are now is much worse than the way we’ve outlined,” Rubio said.

Rubio said that tying the issuing of green cards to border security would give the government an incentive to get it done.

“If they are not fully implemented, there will be no green cards awarded, and we think that will be an incentive,” he said on CNN.

But the issue of requiring border security as a trigger seemed to indicate signs of a rift between the authors of the legislation and the White House.

“We have a bipartisan disagreement because I think a bipartisan group of senators agree that that should be a trigger, and the president disagrees,” Rubio said on CNN. “And hopefully we can pass a bill that has that in there. And if we do, then you’ll have a decision to make about whether to sign it or not.”